I'm hoping to see some Japanese reviews pop up of the HDC-SD1. Even a poorly translated Japanese review I'm salivating for more info about this camera.

1st one showed up on Ebay:

http://tinyurl.com/y5mh29

It's an NTSC version which is curious. Why sell NTSC outside of the US?

NTSC is the broadcast format in Japan. This is a Japanese domestic model and will not have a US warranty. The review was done from previously posted information in news releases and website reports from CEATEC. I don't think they actually have the camcorder in hand based on the way they are advertising it.

There will be a review here and at Pana3CCDUser.com as soon as we can get our hands on review models. Reports are that Panasonic will not release these models outside of Japan until Spring 2007.

Well, I couldn't wait any longer and decided to order the new SD1 from Ebay. Should have it in about 4 - 5 days. Has anyone found samples from this camera or seen a demo of it? I've searched all over the net with no luck. I'll try to post samples when I get it next week. I'm real curious to see how it compares with the SR1.

Well in this review, the guy says the panasonic performs better than the Sony.

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/newsitems...dc-sd1_dx1.html


From the review:
" The quality of the movie clips recorded with both these models is so strikingly good (and much better than those produced by the Sony HDR-SR1, it should be added - especially in conditions of lower lighting) that some early adopters will probably be happy to sit it out as computer video software makers get their act together and provide suitable editing software that will handle the heavy system overhead created by the AVCHD format. Time will tell!"

Cool, please post back your thoughts about this camera. The more detail the better. Thanks for taking the plunge

Thanks for posting the link Medawky. That was the first review I've read that has some good (and reassuring) information about this cam. It's too bad they didn't post some sample vids. I'm checking daily on the web but still haven't found anything. Looking forward to getting mine in a few days!

Says Sony:

In Spring 2007, AVCHD camcorder support will be included in a free update for all registered Vegas 7 users.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pr...D=404&PageID=40

After waiting a week for the shipment from Japan, I finally have my hands on the SD1 and have had a little bit of time to use it. Here is a sample video I took using the highest quality (13Mbps).

https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/cont...knapp/00003.MTS

This sample is uneditted since I have not been able to use the software that came with it because it's all in Japanese (That's what I get for being impatient). When I get more Time I'll post more sample videos, especially with some low light shots. Also, playback is Choppy on my AMD3400 using coreAVC codec and windows media player. Let me know if anyone finds a good media player that can handle this file better. When I use the SD1 to playback through HDMI on my 45" Sharp 1080i, the video looks great!

Hayabusa2005,

thanks for providing the sample video, this is the first clip that I have come across during extensive searching on the net since it was released in Japan.

I can play the clip in Elecard MPEG player but it stutters, this is on my 3600+ dual core Athlon machine running 32-bit XP Pro.

I tried the latest VLC Media Player, that shows part of the first image then crashes. I had read a while back that the most efficient decoder for PC was coreAVC, so it is disappointing to hear that it stutters with than on your machine.

Glad to hear that the quality is good over HDMI, this only makes me more frustrated that I have to wait until spring

BTW do you know yet how easy it is going to be to back up to DVD? I was thinking of archiving the MTS to dual layer DVD. Also, is the .MTS you supplied direct from the camera? Reason I ask is that the Sony format is .M2TS. From what I have read, standard MTS transport stream should be more compatible compared to the M2TS which Sony opted for,

Kevin

I guess I'll just need to upgrade my CPU soon. All of the video I've taken with the SD1 and played back on my PC will freeze up about 10 seconds after it starts, so I've been watching the recorded video directly from the HDMI out on the cam (which again looks really good).


Here are some low light shots I took with the SD1:
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/cont...knapp/00007.MTS
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/cont...knapp/00011.MTS

I attempted to burn the .MTS files to a DVD+R and play them back on a PS3 Blu-Ray drive, but the PS3 could not read this format

The camera doesn't seem to be able to read non-HC SD cards. I tried my 4gb High speed 150 SD card and it said that the card was not compatible and would not format it. This is probably why they included a 4gb SD-HC card with the cam.

Also, I've only been able to transfer files from the camcorder using the USB 2.0 connection. When I put the SD card in a reader and try to view the files, my computer freezes. I've tried with both WinXP and Vista with no luck.

Something is wrong with that file. Nero Showtime locks up when I try to play it and Nero plays Sony AVCHD files just fine. Check to make sure you are copying the file extension correctly. I tried changing it from MTS to M2TS without any luck.

Using the HD writer software (Japanese version), I was able to convert the files to .m2ts.
Here is one of the low light samples. Let me know if it still won't play.

https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/cont...napp/00007.m2ts

Here is a screen from the HD software menu:

It allows file transfer from the SD1 to your PC, and apears to have the ability to copy directly to a DVD, but I have not been able to get this to work yet.

Attached Images

 

Guy-

Try to use PowerDVD v. 7.0. Rename the xxx.MTS files xxx.MPG and play the videos in File mode. I got better results (audio matching video) than Nero Showtime or Windows Media Player (possibly showtime via directshow).

Also, Nero consumed about 85% of CPU resources, PowerDVD took about 60% while playing back the same files. Cyberlink must have a more efficient codec.

Hayabusa -- your SD Card reader will not read SD-HC cards - it'll just lock up file explorer. You need a new one made for the HC variety (they are $45 in Tokyo). Also, the camera will not recognize any normal SD card larger than 2GB according to my manual. However, I see Transcend is selling a 8GB SD-HC card in the US for $150 which seems like a pretty good deal.

Regards,
peter

First of all thanks for posting some samples. I could only convert the #11 file, the nite shot, which i must admit looked brilliant, very little noise.

Elecard could open and playback every file u posted, but could only encode #11 to mpeg2 for some reason. The other files failed to start encoding, just sat there with no processing. I was really looking forward to the 80meg file with the dogs running around. Like i said, i was able to play them back in the little window of Elecard mpeg converter, but it was interlaced and choppy cos there was no deinterlacing during playback.

Any chance u could upload another daytime shot sample, possible with the same settings that applies to file number 11, i dunno why its any different but either way. Also, why were some files mts and not mt2s?